There’s a chap in Russia who in the name of art nailed his undercarriage to red square. I’m sure he thought it was a great idea at the time but regretted it fairly quickly. I was pretty much in the same boat as comrade holey purse last Thur night when we all played Relic . But I digress…

The Hobbit an unexpected journey card game courtesy of TK Maxx which occasionally stocks weird and wonderful games. No it’s NOT that card game it’s the other one with DAS KART a the start.

It’s a Reiner Knizia game based on another Reiner Kniza game so absolutely nothing to do with the hobbit just the pictures of the boys and a card placement game that’s similar to ever other game he did. It’s fine. it’s got card counting, it’s fairly quick but it does take up a lot of table space. all in all meh.

Relic is Talisman with a Space Marine Theme bolted on and some extra mechanics. It’s from Fantasy Flight so it’s all very nicely put together (the board is very busy looking tbh) with very good production qualities. If you like Talisman you’ll like Relic. I don’t like Talisman. 12 year olds probably like Talisman. I couldn’t say. But this thing just drags on and on and on until someone gratefully wins. There’s no interaction with the other players. It’s pretty much all dice based. This could one of the games from Winning Streak.

The idea is to build up a character and get him into the centre to win. There are three concentric rings where you can pick cards and fight stuff each of which is more difficult, don’t kill you and might make you stronger, then in the centre you take the long walk and hopefully your character is tough enough to make it and win. A second theme to the game is staying awake whilst playing it and not being the first player to cut yourself through sheer jaw breaking boredom.

You might be able to tell I’m not a fan. Ah well it’s nearly xmas we’re allowed a turkey this season.